


An ode to the last

by Mariamagda



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Izuna-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 09:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20374864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mariamagda/pseuds/Mariamagda
Summary: Izuna loves his big brother.Perhaps if the others hadn’t died, they wouldn’t be so close. Izuna doesn’t remember his older brothers all that well; he was barely old enough to walk when they died.  He knows Madara remembers, but he doesn’t speak of them, and Izuna doesn’t ask. The one time he builds the courage to ask Tajima all he learns are the Senju were to blame for their deaths.His curiosity fades after a while. Izuna has no reason to miss them, and Madara is enough to replace them.





	An ode to the last

Izuna loves his big brother.

Perhaps if the others hadn’t died, they wouldn’t be so close. Izuna doesn’t remember his older brothers all that well; he was barely old enough to walk when they died. He knows Madara remembers, but he doesn’t speak of them, and Izuna doesn’t ask. The one time he builds the courage to ask Tajima all he learns are the Senju were to blame for their deaths.

His curiosity fades after a while. Izuna has no reason to miss them, and Madara is enough to replace them.

\--

Izuna is a fast learner.

He learns how to fight, how to weave a lie into the minds of his opponents, how to slice them open before they even realise where his blade is. He is better than anyone his age.

By far, his favourite spars are when his brother joins them. He knows the other children don’t like the elder Uchiha much. Madara is a force of nature - blunt, destructive, and overwhelming – and confident in his skills. He already has the Sharingan, and the instinct of how use it. Madara won’t tolerate anything less than perfection in himself and is easily frustrated by what he sees as the half-heartedness of the others. Even Izuna, who strives to match him, tries to out manoeuvre, to outthink, can barely land a hit on most days. 

When Izuna awakens his own Sharingan, he gets better, but he still doesn’t manage to beat him.

He is never jealous. He is proud. Madara is his big brother, and Madara is the best.

\--

When Izuna first awakens the Sharingan, he dreams.

There is a valley, and the roar of a waterfall drowns out any sound. His brother is there, blood and sweat dripping from his face. Madara is older, and the creases under his eyes are deeper than ever before. 

There is another man—hair at his waist, skin darker than any Uchiha, and with his hand outstretched. Izuna feels like he is a ghost, a spectre hanging over what feels like the ending to a story he never saw. He always wakes before the outcome. 

The dreams are strange and unsettling. Izuna never tells Madara about them.

\--

When Madara is fourteen and Izuna is twelve, a surprise attack destroys an entire clan outpost.

They arrive too late. Izuna sees one of the bodies, blood covered and broken like the doll she clutched in her hand– _he thinks her name was Himiko, she was only ten_—and he is furious. Madara is shaking beside him. He remembers his older brothers.

Afterwards, Izuna notices a change in his brother.

Madara has always been too much for most of the clan; too aggressive, too emotional, too outspoken for the future leader. Izuna has heard him argue with Tajima more than once, but now, Madara is quiet. 

He still trains, still reads every scroll he can get his hands on, still gets frustrated easily, but he disappears more often, and is away for hours. Their spars together are no less frequent, but Izuna has realised they are less ferocious. He has fewer bruises at the end. As if their last defeat has wearied him.

When Izuna asks, Madara shrugs it off. So Izuna does what any little brother would do. The next time Madara disappears, he follows him.

\--

There is another boy at the river.

He is bright, and loud, and every movement is large and animated. He laughs at something Madara says, and his brother shoves him hard. Izuna pushes down the ugly pang of anger—_he’s not your brother, he’s mine, you can’t have him too_—and watches with growing apprehension. This is the boy who has been leeching the life out of his brother.

He tells Tajima.

Madara will not speak to him for a week after the river fight, but Izuna is angry himself. A_ Senju_.

Izuna thinks of the three memorial stones with their brothers' names. He will not let there be a fourth.

\--

Izuna throws himself into studying their dojutsu when Madara comes home with tomoe that have somehow morphed into a something new.

The clan is afraid of these new eyes, and Madara becomes more frustrated than ever before. Izuna does his best to moderate, but annoyingly, Madara won't give him any of the details, and won’t tell him exactly how the new stage of Sharingan - _Mangekyo _\- is triggered.

He figures he'll find out eventually. 

\--

When Izuna is eighteen, he is bored.

It has been a quiet year. Izuna finds life without battle is tedious and slow, but at least he’s not the eldest son. Madara has been shadowing Tajima for the past months, and flops into bed at night moaning about the balances of grain in storehouses. At least, Izuna can still train.

That all changes at the last clan wedding of the summer. A girl from one of the minor families is seated next to him during the ceremony.

Mako is beautiful, and smart and kind, and he spends the next week finding ways of accidentally running into her. He sneaks away to bring her flowers, and she leaves his favourite foods at the spar grounds.

She kisses him when he shows her how to throw a kunai, and it takes Madara attempting to smother him with a pillow to shut him up about it.

When she meets Madara, she looks directly into his eyes without fear.

Izuna has never been happier.

Mako dies before the wedding in a Senju attack. Izuna’s eyes burn red.

\--

Madara is going blind. Izuna can tell. Madara has let more blows land than normal, his normally pale arms littered with light purple bruises. Izuna rubs his own red eyes, and knows the same fate awaits him, but he is not as reckless. It will be longer. 

The Senju are winning and that boy from the river, Senju Hashirama, - _sk__in darker, hair longer_,_like Izuna’s dreams,_—leads them. He, shadowed by his own little brother Tobirama, and the clan as a whole are growing stronger. But more terrifying to Izuna than the wood that erupts from the ground without warning, are the words of the eldest Senju.

Hashirama speaks of peace, of a village where children will no longer have to fight—_where there will be no more Himikos or Makos, or memorial stones for brothers long dead_—and Izuna can feel Madara weakening—can feel the same leeching of his resolve as during those months at the river where his brother was defeated.

Izuna thinks Tobirama can sense it too—the unnatural bond between natural enemies.

\--

Izuna is twenty-four, and he dies slowly.

Tobirama slices through him, faster than the Sharingan can see, and instantly Izuna knows it is fatal.

He can feel his feet give way, but Madara is there, like Madara has always been there, holding him up. They disappear in a cloud of smoke, but not before Hashirama tries again to sway his brother. Tries to poison him with fantasies of an alliance even while Madara is trying to stem the blood rushing from his chest. This is what makes Izuna is afraid.

He is choking on his own blood - _and he is cold, and he realises now that it won’t be Madara's name on the fourth memorial stone_ \- _who will help his brother lead the clan - who will protect him from the valley_ \- Madara is saying something now, telling him to be quiet, but Izuna can’t be quiet. He reaches for his eyes—and Madara is shaking his head, whispering I don't need them, you’re not going to die, but it is a lie, and Izuna hates lies. He makes him promise to have the eyes. Madara may be blind to the Senju, but Izuna is not, and he will not leave his brother defenceless.

After all, Izuna loves his big brother. 

**Author's Note:**

> My first foray into fan fiction. This was a idea that I just had to type out. Kind con-crit is welcome.


End file.
